After the discovery of oil fields, Baku became a special place, where various economic and political interests of international coalitions, industrial clans and leaders were concentrated and clashed. VK begins publishing chapters from the book by Ismail Agakishiyev "History of the Baku Oil Industry and the Second Oil Boom (second half of the 19th century - beginning of the 20thcentury)" The book presents a historical analysis of the emergence and current state of the Azerbaijani oil industry.
The oil industry remained the main driving force of the economy. Since all the best resources were involved in the realization of the "Contract of the Century," real progress was reached with the AIOC in this direction. The following results were achieved in the framework of the "Contract of the Century":
- In February 1995 two engineering reconnaissance shafts were drilled at the "Chirag" platform to study the characteristics of the footing, each 150 meters deep.
- In February and May of 1995, seismic-acoustic profiling was completed on a territory 1000 m long, as well as sonar and bathymetric research carried out on a territory of 450 square kilometers for the construction of deep-water platforms and an oil pipeline.
- In August-December 1995 three-dimensional seismic studies were conducted in an area of 990 square km and 26,400 square meters of seismic-acoustic profiling was accomplished for the first time in the Caspian Sea with the help of a research vessel.
- From July 1994 - September 1995 the semi-submersible drilling rig "Kaspromneft" (nowadays it is known as "Dede Gorgud") was modernized. Today, the SSDR "Dede Gorgud" can drill wells 7250 m deep at depths of 50 to 475 m.
- From March 1997 - November 1998 the SSDR "Shelf-5" (now called the "Istiglal") was modernized. It is capable of drilling wells 7600 m deep at depth of 50 to 700 m.
- From June 1997 - June 2000, five reconnaissance wells were drilled.
- Reconstruction of the "Chirag-1" platform was carried out in accordance with Western standards.
- On January 18th 1996 a contract for the export of oil was signed between Azerbaijan and Russia.
- In March 1996, a contract for the export of oil was signed between Azerbaijan and Georgia.
- At the beginning of 1996 a joint venture "Gipromorneft" and the geological-reconaissance bureau conducted engineering geological research of the northern pipeline route related to the construction of the Sangachal terminal by "Azeri-Furgo."
- The "Chirag" platform was built at a depth of 120 meters. It produces 115 thousand barrels of oil and 117 million cubic meters of gas daily.
- A 24-inch underwater pipeline 178-km long has been constructed to connect the platform to the shore.
- The Sangachal terminal for oil storage with a volume of 100 thousand cubic meters has been built.
- The 231-km-long Northern pipeline from the Sangachal terminal to the Russian border to transport oil to the port of Novorossiysk has been built.
- The 830-km-long Western pipeline has been built to the port of Supsa on the Black Sea.
- On November 12th 1997 early oil was produced at the wells of the Chirag oil field. It produces more than a thousand tons of oil daily.
- In 1997 early oil was produced at the "Chirag-1" platform. To date, this platform has produced 17 million tons of oil. It is important to stress that the entire increase in oil production in Azerbaijan was produced by the AIOC. In 1998, the consortium produced 70 thousand barrels of oil per day at the Chirag oil field. From the start of its operation until June 2001, the field had produced 14.6 million tons of oil and 3.1 billion cubic meters of gas. By January 1st 1999 the AIOC had spent 2 billion dollars on the realization of the "Contract of the Century."
By December 1999 the entire revenue coming from the field was spent on reimbursing the financial costs of investors. After that, Azerbaijan began to receive its share of the "profitable oil". The first tanker with Azeri "profitable oil" reached the world markets in December 1999. The volume of investments in the oil sector increased with time. In 1998, the share of foreign investments in the oil sector amounted to 39.4%, however in 1999 the figure was already 50.1%. The economic development continued also in 2000. According to data of the Statistics Committee, the country's GDP increased by 9.9% in the first 9 months of 2000 compared to the same period in 1999. The Chairman of the National Bank of the Azerbaijani Republic reported that the level of annual inflation fell from 1886% in 1995 to 86% in 2000. From 1996 to 2000, the country's GDP grew by 37%. Stabilization of the manat took place. In 1995, one US dollar was worth 4,440 manats and in 2000 it was 4,545 manats. In the course of 5 years the rate of the dollar had changed by only 2%. In 1994 the minimum wage amounted to 13 dollars and by 2000 it had reached the 50-dollar mark.
Naturally, this was not enough either. However, Azerbaijan continued to pay off its budget surplus with the help of oil money. In 2000 the debt of Azerbaijan was the lowest among the CIS countries - a little more than $1 billion - and amounted to 25% of GDP.
In comparison, Georgia's debt was more than its GDP. As of June 2003, the oil reserves in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) oil fields were estimated at 730 million tons of oil. It has since been proven that the reserves of these fields amount to 900 million tons of oil.